Boons

+ATK: With an Attack boon, Mathilda will be granted some very beneficial offensive power, helping her to excel in a anti-cavalry role.

+RES: A Resistance boon will boost Mathilda’s already amazing magical bulk even further and allows her to utilize Ploys with greater efficiency.

Neutral

HP: At 35, Mathilda has a rather unimpressive HP stat. HP makes for a overall decent choice of bane, but this will hurt her overall bulk and make her weaker against magic as a result. Because of this, it is advised to keep HP neutral if possible.

SPD: Mathilda has an overall middling Speed stat of 32. While boosting her Speed with a Speed boon isn’t a bad option, other boons will benefit her more. Still though, a Speed boon is a overall good option for Mathilda.

Banes

-DEF: Defense makes for an overall effective bane on Mathilda. A Defense bane will not hurt her magical bulk which makes it the best option for an anti-mage set in particular.

This set aims to capitalize on Mathilda’s default weapon, the Ridersbane, and make her into a powerful anti-cavalry unit.

The Ridersbane gives Mathilda a pretty good Attack stat of 43, which when combined with the 1.5x modifier against cavalry, gives her an effective Attack stat of 64 against all cavalry, boosted again even further with cavalry buffs. With the help of a cavalry buff, she can handle most non-green cavalry in a single hit.

If you throw Distant Counter into the mix, Mathilda is able to survive a +Atk Death Blow Reinhardt with just 3 HP remaining and will defeat him on her second attack. This is why an Attack boon or the Attack Sacred Seal is important, to ensure that Mathilda can OHKO him so that she can deal with any Reinhardt running Lancebreaker. With Vantage active, a +Atk Mathilda also does not have to worry about Moonbow and Quickened Pulse, since Reinhardt won’t be even able to attack in the first place. Mathilda’s high Resistance also allows her to run Def Ploy very effectively, softening enemies up to allow her to deal more damage. She can even run Def Ploy in her Sacred Seal slot, allowing for her to run both Def Ploy and a Cavalry Buff if she's being used in a cavalry team.

While the main claim of this build is to tank Reinhardt, she will also easily deal with any red mage you come across and most other cavalry thanks to the Ridersbane. Unfortunately, this build will only really shine against cavalry units and Mathilda will be outperformed by other blue cavalry against any other team composition.

This build is focused on being a magical wall more than a cavalry killer.

With the Fury skill, Mathilda receives a nice all-round boost to her stats, making her more effective across the board. With a Resistance boon, she reaches 40 Resistance, making her able to survive most mages with ease. Add on the Berkut’s Lance+ and she will reach a staggering 44 Resistance, making her extremely difficult to take down with magic, with even Nino somewhat struggling to ORKO her. If you forge Berkut's Lance, she will reach 47 Resistance instead. Forging the Berkut's Lance for Attack will help out with Mathilda's damage output whereas the Resistance forge will boost her Resistance by another 4 points, allowing her to reach 51 Resistance. Attack Res 2 is also a possibility, boosting Mathilda’s two most useful stats without sacrificing HP per battle.

While she won’t be able to retaliate at a distance, Mathilda will still be capable of baiting Reinhardt and defeating him on player phase so long as Reinhardt is not running Lancebreaker since she will lose her OHKO potential without the Ridersbane. With Cancel Affinity, Mathilda will also be able to deal with green units using Triangle Adept or Emerald Axe, such as Raven Cecilia and Titania. She will also be effective against red units, but this is hardly something unique to Mathilda. The B slot is heavily open though, to the point where a lot of different skills could be beneficial. Other options include Vantage which lets Mathilda attack first when below 75% HP and Drag Back which allows her to potentially retreat from enemy ranges after an attack. Def Ploy makes for a amazing choice thanks to Mathilda’s stacked Resistance, allowing her to activate it against almost anybody she comes across. If on a cavalry team, using any of the Cavalry buffs such as Hone Cavalry will also be a possible option.

The Sacred Seal of choice is Distant Def, allowing Mathilda’s Resistance to be pushed even further to a staggering 57 Resistance. The Def Ploy and Atk Ploy Seals are also great options that Mathilda can use effectively thanks to her amazing Resistance. If Distant Def is being used elsewhere, giving Mathilda a Resistance boost Seal is a fine option as well.

Introduction

When Mathilda first came out, she seemed to be the answer to the cavalry problem (even though she was cavalry herself) with a weapon specifically designed to destroy cavalry. Unfortunately, while the Ridersbane is extremely effective at dealing with cavalry, the Mathilda hype stops there. Her mediocre Attack and Speed mixed with relatively low HP and Defense makes her a tricky unit to use outside of cavalry hunting or mage tanking.

Her offensive stats of 29 Attack and 32 Speed are less than stellar. While not terrible, Mathilda won’t be dealing a lot of damage compared to other available units and her Speed stat is in an awkward position where she can find it somewhat tricky to perform double attacks and avoid doubles from faster units. Her physical tankiness is also quite poor, with only 35 HP and 24 Defense, making her quite weak against melee units. Where Mathilda shines though is her Resistance. At 34 neutral, mages have a hard time getting through her, with even Reinhardt struggling to KO her unless he’s running Lancebreaker or Moonbow with Quickened Pulse.

While she can have niche roles as a cavalier hunter or a magical wall, there are many other units who could perform either role better, especially since her Ridersbane can be transferred to any other lance cavalier such as Peri who has four Attack over Mathilda while also being slightly faster. Still though, when built right, Mathilda can prove to be effective at what she does best, take magic like it’s nothing.

Strengths

Excellent Resistance

At 34 neutral, Mathilda has one of the highest Resistance stats in the game and the second highest Resistance of all cavaliers with only Jagen having more. With a plethora of Resistance booking skills, she can easily resist most forms of magic as if it was nothing, with the notable exception of Wolf tomes. She is also capable of tanking Reinhardt, though Mathilda can still be KO’d by him if he’s running skills such as Lancebreaker or Moonbow with Quickened Pulse.

Her default Ridersbane is a great weapon

The Ridersbane has a strong might of 14 and grants bonus damage against cavaliers. This allows Mathilda to be a quite effective cavalry killer. With the weapon refinery, the Ridersbane can also be forged to ignore cavalry buffs, in addition to the usual stat boosts available.

Weaknesses

Low Defense

At 24 Defense, Mathilda will take a decent chunk of damage from even popular red units such as Zelgius and Ayra. Combined with her 35 HP, Mathilda is overall poor for dealing with physical units.

Outside of her two niches, Mathilda is heavily outclassed

Other than cavalry hunting and mage tanking, Mathilda is very lackluster. She makes for a poor physical combat unit, with many other lance units such as Nephenee, Tana, Ephraim, Legendary Ephraim, Shiro, Brave Lucina, and Hardin doing such a role better.

Team Options

Cavaliers:Being a cavalry unit, Mathilda will benefit heavily from being around other cavalry. Pairing her with a red cavalier such as Sigurd, Eldigan, or SM Eirika will cover for her green weakness. Having the support of a green cavalier such as Gunnthra, Titania, or Frederick for dealing with other blues will also be useful. Other cavaliers include Brave Lyn, Reinhardt, and Legendary Ephraim who are all fantastic on offense, making them great partners to any cavalier.

Strong red fighters:Outside of cavalry teams, Mathilda will want allies who can cover for her green weakness. Legendary Ike, Zelgius, and Ryoma all come with Distant Counter naturally, allowing them to deal with green threats at any range. Ayra, Mia, and Soleil are also strong sword fighters. Magical fighters such as both Tiki, Celica, and Winter Tharja are also strong red fighters that can handle green threats very well.

Counters

Axe fighters: Given her low Defense and Weapon Triangle disadvantage, it is no surprise that axe fighters can deal with Mathilda extremely easily. Units such as Hector, Brave Ike, Dorcas, Raven, and Minerva will take care of Mathilda as if she’s nothing.

Green mages: Even with her Resistance potential, some green mages are able to break through thanks to their strong Attack and Weapon Triangle advantage. Rhajat is of particular note since she is often seen wielding her default Keen Gronnwolf tome which deals effective damage against cavalry. Nino and Summer Elise also pose a significant threat.

Currently on my core arena team as a wallbreaker + magic tank.
I initially used her to deal with Nowi and Reinhardt, but her role has now expanded to bait out mages and to bust through cavalry and armors alike.

Fury is used for raw stats and to get in desperation range quickly. Def Ploy gives her attacks a little more of a kick, and HP/Res 2 gives her additional bulk to tank hits.

Mathilda overall has somewhat low stats except res, Tannerboom can explot her ememy phrase defensive capability to tank against mages without any sacrifice from the damage, overall bost help her to patch her low atk.

This Mathilda variant focuses on walling the majority of dragons and mages - acting like a RES counterpart to Beruka. The skills chosen give her a whopping 49 (54) Resistance when attacking or 56 (61) when defending. Wins all but 2-10 match ups against mages/dragons depending on special state. Wins all match ups against non-green dragons. Can take down Fae at 1-4 charge or Myrrh at 3-4 charges.

She's basically a better Jagen with her stat spread and has a better BST compared to Jagen due to not having the veteran status. Her decent speed stops her from getting doubled by units within the middling speed tier. Ridersbane+ (+eff) let's her disregard horse emblem buffs but will not save her from getting attacked by Brave Lyn.